Performance
Luke Mathews: The future is now
One on one with Australia’s next great 1500m runner
Luke Mathews was barely 21 years old at the Rio Olympics, where he competed in both the 800m and 1500m events. 3 months earlier in May, Luke was at the peak of his powers, running the qualifying time for the 1500m as a 20 year old. By mid-August when Luke walked onto the track his fitness had bottomed out, his performances in Rio a reminder that you can’t be up forever.
Fast forward 15 months and Mathews has put the past behind him, preparing for an assault on the Commonwealth Games in April 2018. He has a new coach, a new manager, another national title, and more valuable experience on the world stage.
“Emotionally Rio was pretty upsetting, it was tough to get over. Looking back, I would have done things differently. By the time I came home from Rio I had been overseas for 5 months”.
“You learn a lot from your first Olympics. I had never been in a stadium environment like that. Running in front of 45,000 people is pretty unexplainable, you can’t prepare for it until you do it. My heart was racing and my legs were like jelly. But I’ve been through that now and I’m ready”.
We caught up with Luke in Falls Creek, the go-to place for altitude training in Australia. In late November the trails around Falls Creek are home for approximately 20 to 30 elite runners from Australia and beyond, while in January that number will swell to almost 200.
“I’ve been here for around 10 days now and training is going well. The base work isn’t always exciting for me. As an 800m and 1500m runner I end up doing base like a 5000m runner.
I’ve logged just over 150km last week and this week will be similar. I’m only 7 weeks back from a break so things are tracking well”.
It’s a far cry from 12 months ago. After the disappointment and fatigue of Rio, Mathews came home to Melbourne for the first time in nearly half a year.
“All I wanted to do was hang out with my mates. My core social group aren’t runners, so those guys give me the opportunity to shut running off for a period which I think I needed".
"My body was so tired and sore that I couldn’t run anyway. I did a couple of runs and I could barely break 5min kms! I was struggling to run, I was eating bad food and I was going out a bit"
If 2016 was a rollercoaster, 2017 has had its moments as well. The year started with a defence of the national title in the 800m and an appearance at the fan favourite Nitro Athletics.
Fast forward to July, and Mathews was training in Spain with his training group, Melbourne Track Club (MTC), headed up by world renowned coach Nic Bideau. Bideau had coached Mathews since early 2015, but a falling out between the two led to Mathews leaving the group two weeks before the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London.
“Leaving MTC was a tough decision. There were numerous reasons I left, but the crux of it is that Nic and I weren’t getting along anymore"
"Athlete-coach relationships like that are never going to work. It goes both ways and in the end we were both working against each other".
On a Saturday afternoon in July, Mathews called his family back in Australia. After a lengthy conversation, Mathews’ mind was made up. He would leave the next morning for the Australian holding camp in Tonbridge, around an hour south of London.
“On Saturday night I booked a train ticket to get back to Madrid".
“I got up the next morning to leave before any of the group were awake. I texted Nic and let him know what I was doing. Then I left. That was the end of our relationship”
“The worst moment was when I got to Madrid airport. At that point I had no manager, no coach, I owed someone money, and at that point I’m thinking my life is over! It’s worked out OK now but at the time it was rock bottom”.
Anyone that knows MTC knows how close the group is. The athletes spend huge amounts of time together, the camaraderie keeping the group relaxed and motivated.
“The toughest part was speaking with Ryan (Gregson), Gen (LaCaze), and Brett (Robinson). They’re three of my closest friends.
I think most people in the group could understand why I made the decision I made, and even if they couldn’t, I thought it was the right move and that’s all that matters".
"I was managed for 5 years by Nic and coached for about two and a half years. It didn’t end the way I thought it would, I thought Nic would be my coach until I retired, but I don’t regret anything.
I don’t regret any of my actions before I joined, during my time there, or on the way out".
With the Rio Olympics still fresh in his mind, the World Championships were a chance for redemption for Mathews, but with no coach and no manager, suddenly everything was up in the air.
“When I got to the Australian camp in Tonbridge I made sure I was around friends. We had this little core group of people that got around me. They all came with me to my warm ups, they walked me to my sessions, they really looked after me. I remember when I walked onto the track, I came out and I just saw them sitting up there waving at me, that support meant a lot.
I was pretty tired when I got to the camp so I had a big taper, I was getting massages every day and trying to save my legs. I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I remember about 50m into the race I was feeling good and I knew I would have a good heat”.
Mathews won his heat that night, putting the turmoil of Rio and the last fortnight behind him. He would go on to run a strong semi final, missing a birth in the final by just .3 of a second.
Mathews is now eyeing a busy first half of 2018, with the Commonwealth Games being the key focus. Being a home games, Mathews knows Australian athletes’ performances will be under a bigger spotlight.
“If you do well at a home games it can change your life. Look at someone like John Steffensen. He had a great meet in Melbourne in 2006 and now he’s an A-list celebrity. Craig Mottram ran well and now he’s a household name, so there are a lot of reasons for people wanting to have a great meet".
"First and foremost it’s about representing your country at one of the highest levels and doing well in front of your fellow countrymen”
Mathews isn't getting ahead of himself, and knows he has to run well at the Australian National Championships in February.
"I have to get selected first, that’s the first box to tick. Everyone’s goal once you make it is to win or get a medal, but first you have to make the final, whether that’s the 800m or 1500m I don’t know yet. If I make the final, I’ll definitely be trying my hardest to win".
As a national champ in the 800m, and also one of Australia's brightest hopes now and in the future in the 1500m, Mathews has some decisions to make around what he focuses on.
"The 1500m will be a strong field, the Kenyans will be well represented with the world champ Manangoi, and the guy who came second Cheruiyot, plus there’s guys like Nick Willis, Ryan Gregson, it’s going to be a strong field.
I think the 800m will be a lot more open, but only 8 people make the final in the 800m, whereas there are 12 in the 1500m".
While the Commonwealth Games are a major meet, Mathews can't afford to put his feet up after the games. His next proper break won't come until August 2018.
"After Commonwealth Games I’ll go to Flagstaff (Arizona) for 5 or 6 weeks to train with some of the British runners. I’m hoping to race in a few times in America. I’ve got some uni exams mid year so I’ll be back for those and then head over to Europe for their summer”.
Mathews will be guided through the Australian season and beyond by his new coach, mother Elizabeth. Elizabeth Mathews coached her son as a junior, prior to joining Bideau's group.
“It was an interesting move to being coached by my mum again. After I left my old group I started speaking to a coach in Britain. The plan was that he would be my coach and mum would manage the day to day here in Melbourne.
It wasn’t to be in the end, so I asked mum if she would be willing to take me on and thankfully she said yes".
Elizabeth Mathews was quick to set the tone of the new coach-pupil relationship.
"Mum just wants me to do what I’m told on and off the track, that was basically the only condition. If my old coach said I couldn’t go out on a Saturday night, I definitely wouldn’t. So mum just wanted to make sure I treated it the same. I have to treat her like a coach".
“Mum coached me when I was 16 until just before I turned 20, and that’s the age where you’re a bit of a shit as a kid, so there was some backchat sometimes! It’s easy to say “no I’m not doing that” when you’re 16 and your mum is coaching you. I was sort of driving my own bus and talking back a bit, but now at 22 and being more mature I know what it’s like to work hard”.
Mathews credits his time at MTC for helping him mature as a runner and as a pupil.
“At MTC I learned what being a professional athlete is all about. I learned how to train hard, how to eat properly, recover, manage little niggles, everything. I even learned how to live better off the track, and all of that comes from both the athletes and the coaches”.
Much is made of the confidence of the MTC group. Success breeds success, and with a host of Australia’s most successful runners in their stable, leaving the MTC environment to be coached by your mother seems an obvious risk.
“I’ve gone from a system I had 100% faith in, into another system I have 100% faith in. I’m doing what I think will work, and if I prepare the right way I’ll be confident and I’ll run well”
Whether it’s in the Commonwealth Games or before, Mathews will get a number of chances this summer to square off against close friend and 1500m national champ, Ryan Gregson.
“When I was growing up Ryan was my idol, and then at the start of 2015 we started training together and that was basically my apprenticeship. Grego and I have had some ridiculous races where we just go hammer and tongs at each other.
We would stay in the same hotel, train together on a Thursday, race each other on Saturday, and then cool down or have a beer together afterwards.
It’s a little different now because we’re not training partners but our friendship is still the same and that won’t change.
"I beat him (Ryan Gregson) for the first time this year in a race but he has the upper hand, I think its about 5-1, he’s smashing me!”
Whatever happens at the Commonwealth Games, the Tokyo Olympics, and beyond, Mathews has a mature outlook on the sport.
“When you’re 9 or 10 it’s all about winning gold medals and as you get older you realise that it’s not that easy. Now in my early 20’s it’s about trying to make a final. In the future it might be about getting a medal.
I think the best way to approach the sport is to set goals around giving 100% every time you compete, and if you do that consistently you can walk away satisfied”.
Riding the highs and lows of your early 20’s is all part of growing up, each experience a lesson that can be used to set future direction.
For Luke Mathews, the past eighteen months have given him a strong belief that he belongs on the world stage. Over the course of the next six months the world gets another glimpse into the future of Luke Mathews.
